1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to devices for turning the pages of books and printed materials, and more particularly is directed to a music book or score page turning device for use by musicians whose hands are otherwise occupied and wherein the pages of the book or score are turned successively when the device is actuated.
2. Preliminary Discussion
The inconvenience of having to turn successive pages of sheet music or a book containing music while engaged in playing an instrument is well-known. Typically, such music book or score is supported either on the instrument itself, such as, in the case of a piano having a built-in music support surface, or alternatively is supported on a separate music stand as is usually the case in an orchestra. The main objection to the use of sheet music is that the musician must periodically, at least for an instant, interrupt his or her performance in order to turn the music score to the next page. This requires the musician to move at least one hand away from the instrument for a moment, which can cause such musician to make a playing mistake, or to lose his or her place, and in general possibly negatively affect the quality of the performance. In some cases, where the musician is trying to turn the page quickly, he or she may inadvertently grab and turn several pages rather than a single page, or may even cause the music book or score to fall from the music stand or support. Some performers, particularly solo performers, will have an assistant nearby who will turn the page for the performer as needed. Such arrangement, however, is visually unattractive at best and can be distracting either to the musician or the audience or both. Most experienced musicians therefore adopt the expedient of reading ahead in their music, essentially memorizing the music and/or lyrics up to the end of a page and then turning the page in time to pick up the piece at the turning point, in the meantime playing the music from memory. This has varying degrees of success for even experienced musicians and frequently leads to mistakes when the musician's memory fails or the musician's attention is distracted by something such as the mistake of another musician. For less experienced musicians, the page turning chore can become a nightmare and almost any musician would be glad to be rid of such chore. Overall, therefore, there is a need for a device that enables performers to turn the pages of a music book or score quickly without interfering with their performance.
3. Description of Related Art
The prior art with respect to page turners evidences that a significant amount of thought and research has accumulated in such technological area over the years, and such thought and research appears to be continuing. However, in the opinion of the present inventor, most of such prior art devices are either error prone, too slow, too bulky and cumbersome, or too noisy to be practical in most uses. Following is a brief review of the most pertinent-appearing art in this area.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,605,258 issued to J. Meiszner on Nov. 2, 1926, entitled “Music Leaf Turner”, discloses a page turning device wherein a plurality (preferably ten) of vertical rods extend upwardly behind a book rest, the rods further having arms that extend over the top edge of the book rest, with clips provided on the ends of the arms such clip being successively attached to pages of the book to be turned. Crank arms are attached to the lower end of each rod, which crank arms are connected to a foot control used to rotate the rods one by one to the left to turn successive pages of the book. The Meiszner device therefore uses separate rotating rods to turn each page, rather than using a single sliding rack or member attached to a worm gear as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,735,166 issued to F. Hossell et al. on Nov. 12, 1929, entitled “Page Turning Device”, discloses a device wherein a rack mounted above a book rest contains a slide bar on which a plurality of vertical fingers are slidably mounted on collars. Each finger extends downwardly between successive pages of a book, and a foot actuated piston means is used to slide the vertical fingers one-by-one to the left on the slide bar, which action causes the pages to turn. While Hossell et al. teaches the use of sliding rods or fingers to turn pages, the fingers are individually or separately movable and not provided together on a single rack, nor are they moved by a worm gear arrangement as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,705,900 issued to J. Iacobitti on Apr. 12, 1955, entitled “Sheet Music Stand with Page Turner”, discloses a music stand having a plurality of arms that extend outwardly from a central vertical support, with each arm having a downwardly extending finger attached thereto, which arms are placed successively between the pages to be turned. A foot activated means is provided for individually rotating each arm about the vertical support, which causes the finger to rotate and press against the page and turn it. Such arrangement is structurally very different from and does not include the advantages of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,064,518 issued to P. M. Chernishenko on Nov. 20, 1962, entitled “Devices for Turning Music Pages”, discloses a music page turner comprised of a base having a raceway or channel extending substantially along the entire length of the base. A plurality of discs are slidably mounted in such channel, with each disc holding an upwardly extending peg which are inserted between the individual music pages to be turned. An intermediate section of the raceway is circular, where a disc means attached to a shaft and electrically activated by a worm gear is provided. When activated, the worm gear causes the disc means to rotate, which causes the discs to be successively pushed or moved around such circular section, which movement is sufficient to cause the pages directly adjacent each disc to be turned. Such device is rather structurally complicated as compared to the present invention, and is mechanically unlike such invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,587 issued to J. H. Westrom on Feb. 24, 1976, entitled “Page-Turner for Books and the Like”, discloses a page turner wherein each page is turned via a single roller that moves back and forth between the pages of a book or the like. Westrom therefore broadly illustrates a reversible page turner wherein the pages may be turned in either direction, although such arrangement is also completely different from the present Applicant's invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,195 issued to J. P. Claypool on Aug. 9, 1977, entitled “Page Turner Apparatus”, discloses a page turner wherein a book support is mounted on a stand, and wherein a member is slidably mounted on a slide rod extending along the bottom of the support. Such member has teeth extending downwardly from its bottom side, and a slide plate is mounted on its upper side, oriented so that it is generally parallel to the book support. The slide plate includes several vertical and parallel openings in which successive pages of a book or music score to be turned are placed, and a bail is provided to hold the book or music score in place, with the pages to be turned being placed in front or over such bail and extending through the openings in the slide plate. A foot pedal means is engaged with the teeth on the slide member, which causes the slide plate to be pushed or slide just far enough to the left so that the page to be turned and the corresponding opening in the slide plate is moved to the left of the bail, while the next opening is still to the right of bail, so that only a single page is turned. In another embodiment, the slide rod is threaded and the slide plate is mounted on such threaded rod on cooperating threads such that it moves to the left as the threaded rod is turned by an electric motor, which is activated by a foot switch. One drawback characteristic of such device is that the slide plate is evidently permanently attached to the page turning device, which makes it very difficult to quickly and properly place the pages of a music score to be turned in the openings in the slide plate. In addition, the Claypool page turner cannot turn such pages with the speed and precision that is possible by means of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,641 issued to I. Kobayashi on Aug. 31, 1982, entitled “Apparatus for Automatically Turning the Pages of a Music Box”, discloses a music stand having a rotatable gear attached along the upper center portion of the stand, and further having a plurality of slats attached to such gear which extend between successive pages of a music score. A series of slits are provided in the gear, which come into contact with ends of the slats, causing them to turn, which causes the pages of the music score to also be turned. Such arrangement is also substantially unlike the page turning device of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,675 issued to J. G. Berger et al. on Feb. 24, 1987, entitled “Page Turning Device”, discloses another page turning device wherein a motor driven rotatable gear is situated adjacent the upper center portion of a music stand, and situated on the gear is a rotating disc having finger portions that extend between successive pages of a book to turn the pages. Such pages must first, however, be curled slightly by a roller so that the finger portions can slip or extend between the pages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,266 issued to R. C. Burster on Oct. 1, 1991, entitled “Page Turner for Music Manuscripts and the Like”, discloses a music page turner wherein a rotatable shaft is mounted behind a music support stand, and wire page turner elements are connected to such shaft that engage the upper corners of each page to be turned. A sequential release mechanism is provided to individually turn such pages as the shaft is rotated. Such arrangement is also completely unlike the present inventor's page turner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,248 issued to D. J. Carr et al. on Apr. 20, 1993, entitled “Portable Page Turner for Music Sheets”, discloses a battery operated, reversible motor driven page turner wherein several ‘torpedo tabs’ having clips which are attached to successive music pages to be turned are secured to a belt drive. Various gates are sequentially opened and closed to allow the torpedo tabs to move individually to the left on the belt. Although Carr et al. teaches a battery operated and reversible page turner, such pages are turned by movement of the individual tabs, rather than by movement of a single slide plate on a worm-type gear as in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,097 issued to J. P. Chou et al. on Nov. 19, 1996, entitled “Page Turning Device”, discloses a battery operated, reversible motorized page turner apparatus wherein ferrous tabs are secured to the edges of each page of sheet music, and then a motorized arm having a magnetic tab on its end is used to sequentially grab each page and turn it whenever desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,033 issued to W. G. Dallas on Apr. 11, 2000, entitled “Page Turning Device”, discloses another motorized page turner having a spring arm with a finger element on its end that is used for gripping and sequentially turning each successive page.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,215,058 issued to P. R. Molchak et al. on Apr. 10, 2001, entitled “Remote Controlled Page Turner Utilizing a Plurality of Movable Fingers”, discloses another motor driven, battery operated page turner wherein rods extending upwardly from a case located beneath the book are placed between each page to be turned, and then the individual pages are turned by moving or rotating each rod around a central shaft. Molchak et al. therefore does not utilize a slide plate arrangement as in the present invention.
U.S. PAT. APPLN. PUB. 2003/0110925 filed by D. H. Sitrick et al. and published on Jun. 19, 2003, entitled “Electronic Image Visualization System and Communications Methodologies”, discloses a completely digital or electronic music stand system wherein music pages are stored in digital format and displayed on a computer screen. Several stands may receive the same information from a central computer system so that an entire orchestra can view the displays.
U.S. DES. Pat. No. 269,683 issued to B. E. Barbour on Jul. 12, 1983, entitled “Electric Sheet Music Page Turner”, discloses an ornamental embodiment for a music sheet page turner wherein arms that attach to the pages to be turned by clips are rotatable about a central axis.
Of the prior art page turning devices known to the present inventor, only the Claypool '195 device utilizes a sliding plate to move or turn the individual pages or sheets. In the second embodiment of the Claypool '195 invention, described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, the sliding plate is mounted on a threaded rod such that when the rod is rotated via a motor actuated by a foot pedal, the sliding plate moves transversely until a single page is turned. Claypool, however, does not appear to have considered carefully the importance of the amount of time it takes to turn each page. If the page is turned too slowly, the effectiveness of the device is considerably reduced because, for example, a musician who is used to reading and playing at a relatively constant speed or pace may be caused to lose his or her place during a performance. On the other hand, if the Claypool turning device turns the pages too quickly, the device will essentially be uncontrollable, since Claypool does not include a means for indicating when the slide plate has moved the desired distance to turn a single page. Claypool also does not teach any means for calibrating or adjusting the movements of the page turner, and therefore it is prone to error. In addition, while the Claypool slide plate as disclosed is permanently connected to the page turning device, the present inventor's page turning racks are easily detached and reattached to the page turner, so that a book or music score can be pre-loaded in the rack and then placed in the mount and connected with the mechanism, thereby making the present inventor's racks significantly easier to load than the Claypool plate. As a result, the present inventor can pre-load several racks, if necessary, and then easily attach the racks sequentially to the page turning device as needed, so that if a music score is too long to fit in a single rack, or if more than one composition is going to be performed following music in separate books or the like, after the first composition has ended, the rack holding such music can be simply removed from the page turning device and replaced with another pre-loaded rack holding the new composition. In addition, the present inventor's page turning device also includes an adjustable binder or music book support, so that the support can be adjusted for use with books or music scores having different thicknesses and widths. Preferably, also the individual arms of the rack can be disconnected at one side of the rack and during loading of the rack laid between the proper pages. This obviates the necessity to thread the pages individually between the arms of the rack.